I'm pretty sure my laptop is infected by some virus or trojan to the extent I'm ready to reformat the machine back to new. I am trying to create recovery disks for a Gateway M-7315U laptop running windows vista with SP2. Disk 1 creates fine, but error code 203 pops up when trying to create disk 2. I've tred restarting the program severa time and now have numerous copies of disk 1, but still can't complete the process of creating disk 2. I have searched high and low on the internet for fixes and solutions. Apparently millions of others are suffering this issue as well. Gateway does have a "patch" that is supposed to fix the problem and get rid of the error, but it does not work. Surely, someone out there know how to get the recovery system to create the disk 2. I can't seem to get any help from Gateway support.

Well, I don't have a Gateway, so I can't answer your question. But it might help if - from all the research you did - you could tell what you learned about the meaning and possible causes of error 203.

Moreover, this is nice opportunity to make a two more general remarks.1. Making a recovery disk is NOT a feature of the OS (Windows Vista). It's done by a program written by the manufacturer (Gateway in your case). So only Gateway knows the cause and the possible remedies. If they didn't publish that comprehensively, you're dependent on what other victims tried and did and put on the Internet.2. Making recovery disks when you need them is too late. If the hard disk fails, you can't do it any more, so you're lucky you succeeded in making disk one. If, on the contrary, you had done it the first time you had used your new machine either it would have been a success or you could have returned the machine under warranty if the shop can't fix or provide you with the Gateway made recovery disks for free. It's an essential thing: making recovery disks and if it doesn't work it surely is a valid reason to return it as DOA.

I really appreciate the thought both of yo have put into this.... However....Kees_b point #2.... Yep it would sure have been good to have made those disks as soon as the box was unpacked . Prehaps there was even a pop up notification admonishing the original owner to do so on the first start up (I believe you assume I am the original owner). I doubt however that the vast majority of the world would do this routinely regardless that they should. Regarding point #1, the reason I posted in this forum is from my research, a vulnerability in Windows seems more likely to be the culprit than a bad piece of code the manufacturer wrote. Perhaps that is not the case. Thank you for your comments just the same.To ODaniel... I had alread found all this information in the user manual provided on the laptop itself, however one of the aritcle I had researched indicated that a restoration in the manner as noted may not be as effective as one might hope. See: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc700813.aspx Hence my desire to create the restore disks (which, unlikely as that might be or certainly less likely, could have been corupted too). Alternately, I'd like to find the support page where I could buy the recovery disks which several posts suggest can be purchased for about $20.Again... surely someone has solved this code 203 error. Too many people are suffering it for someone not to be working on a solution or has already created a fix or patch.

is restoring the system from an IMAGE file which takes the computer back to factory condition. It is this SAME IMAGE that the recovery disks are created from. Most often if you have had malware on a disk the recovery image is not compromised and the recovery returns the system as intended - it overwrites the hard drive with the IMAGE of the recovery.

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